Sky maps: Leaving no star unturned

TODAY, there is hardly a place on Earth that remains uncharted, unnamed or unclaimed. Just go online and you can view a satellite image of anywhere on the planet - the summit of Everest, say, the South Pole or a maze of streets in Timbuktu. Satellites and silicon have created an awesome picture of our world.

For some people, namely astronomers, the world is not enough. They'd love to map the whole night sky with the same vigour, and that dream is not far off thanks to several all-sky surveys in the pipeline. By around 2020, astronomers say, practically all the asteroids, stars and galaxies that ground-based telescopes could possibly see will be ticked off and catalogued.

"In my mind, it's very much analogous to maps of the Earth," says John Tonry from the University of Hawaii's Institute for Astronomy (IfA) in Honolulu. "In the 13th century, practically ...

To continue reading this article, subscribe to receive access to all of newscientist.com, including 20 years of archive content.

To continue reading this article, log in or subscribe to New Scientist